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Hi, this is Dana Stevens, Slate's movie critic here with the first Slate spoiler special of

the year 2013. We're talking about Les Miserables, the new Tom Hooper production of the grand

global smash musical. And joining me in the Slate studio is David Haglund. Hey, David. Hi, Dana.

You are the editor of the Browbeat culture blog on Slate. That's right. And you are, let's get some of your background on Les Miserables.

You're a long-term fan of the show?

I'm not a fanatic, but I did see it when I was nine years old on its first U.S. tour, and I loved it,

and have just always had a fondness for it for that reason.

Whenever I hear the songs, find myself humming them again, which certainly happened again. Did you have the soundtrack? I don't think I ever...

Well, no, yeah, I'm sure I had a cassette version of it when I was a kid.

It probably belonged to my sister.

I went to see it with her.

You know, it was sort of a very adult outing for a nine-year-old.

Did you see it in Boston or on Broadway?

I saw it in Boston at the Schubert Theater, yeah, 1987. I wonder if it's possible that you and Julia overlap.

We were just talking to Julia Turner on the Culture Gab Fest about her childhood tween love.

And in fact, wasn't there a post on Browbeat about the tween appeal of this musical?

Yeah, so first Rachel Maddox wrote a piece for Slate that was about why children, especially kids in that age, that sort of 10 to 12 range, love Les Mis.

And then I wrote a post on Browbeat about why I think boys in particular might enjoy it.

She had sort of focused on the girl perspective.

Oh, I didn't see her talk on the boy perspective.

...